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Michael's 1997 European Vacation
July 5th, 1997. I got a ride with Mrs. Fortuner from Montendre to San Sebastian
where I met with Tom and Family. I arrived at 18:00 in San Sebastian, Spain. It was
great to see Tom again, we walked along the beach and I met Manon. Manon
was Tom's half cousin, and helped me relentlessly with my French. She
pointed out all sorts of pronunciation mistakes that I had been making for the
longest time, which nobody else had bothered to correct.
7-6 Sun. Got up early and went walking with Manon. Later we all went to Mykel’s, and had a fun swim in his pool. Next I got the absurd idea of hitch-hiking to Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls. Since I wouldn't have a place to stay in Pamplona, I decided I would just party all night until the bulls run early in the morning and then hitch back. The plan sounded good at least...
While partying, I met several very nice girls from Pamplona, who
took it upon themselves to show me all that Pamplona had to offer. We hung
out together for most of the night, talking about all sorts of various things
from travel to life plans to politics and religion. We also walked to
their favorite spot from which to view the scheduled fireworks. The entertainment and
fireworks that night were very impressive, and we had a great time! We exchanged
addresses and promised to write. The only sad
thing was that all of the girls had to return to their homes before morning,
leaving me to fend for myself during the cold night. I was going to just
stay up all night and party to stay warm, but I started getting excessively
tired about 4:00 AM from all the traveling and partying. I had to search
all over the town for even a section of ground that was unfilled by people or
litter. Eventually I found a nice park bench.
7-7 Mon. To attempt to sleep, I wrapped my body around my little backpack with my camera gear inside, and secretly strapped the shoulder strap to the bench such that if someone were to try to just grab it, that it couldn't easily be removed. It was very cold that night, making me feel sorry for people who live on the streets. I don't think I really slept at all, but it felt good trying...
Once morning
finally arrived I headed over to see the bulls. An hour before the run, I
originally found a super place to watch from, putting me within touching
distance of the bulls, and yet allowing me to retreat by climbing.
Unfortunately, I happened to choose a section of road that needed to be cleared
to allow the other runners a place to go, and the police forced me out of my
wonderful place. At that point I found myself in the road with many other
runners, but was then kicked out of there as well since I had a small day pack
with me.
By this time many people had gathered, making it impossible to see anything.
Luckily, I could apply my climbing skills to climb a minuscule ledge and hold on
to a little crack for what turned out to be about 8 minutes until the bulls
trotted by. By this time however, my muscles were shaking so badly that I could
barely hold the camera still enough with RG25 film to photograph the bulls, even
at one stop underexposure. The picture came out pretty nice actually, though it
looks highly impressionistic. I then hitched back to San Sebastian, and had a
nice dinner. In hindsight, partying with the girls and climbing the ledge were
the highlights of the Pamplona trip, the bulls seemed a bit tired and docile.
7-14 Mon. We drove to Jesus’ house
while auto-touring the local area. Jesus was a skilled cook, and he
prepared an excellent Spanish tortilla dinner. He cooked the potatoes with a massive amount of
oil, and then barely cooked the eggs. I was skeptical during the process, but he
knew what he was doing and it came out absolutely
great. He mentioned that his friends would be going on a hike in the Pyrenees
the next day, and offered that I come along. I accepted, and spent the night in
the area.
7-15 Tues. I accompanied the group I had just met the night before to the Pyrenees. This time we began on the Spanish side, but we hiked into France. We hiked all over, and had spectacular views of beautiful rugged rocky outcroppings and waterfalls and meadows. I was impressed that this area of the Pyrenees resembled the Alps more than I had expected. We also had a very nice lunch up on the mountain, and naturally (remember, we had hiked into France) we had a nice bottle of wine with it.
7-16 Wens.
I had originally planed to leave San Sebastian a few day later and travel to
Switzerland to reunite with Tom and family who were going there by train. However, while talking on the
phone with one of my Dutch friends who was visiting his father in Italy, we came
up with the plan that I would hitch a ride to his father's home in Dobiacco to
meet up with Michele since he would be arriving there in 3 days. I would
leave San
Sebastian the next morning...
7-17 Thurs. In the morning, the weather was awful, so I waited until 11:00 to leave. I was very successful in quickly finding fast rides across Europe. For my first day of travel, I made it to Grenoble, where one of the people who gave me a ride offered me the keys to his empty house. He told me to stay as long as I would like and just leave the keys in the mailbox when I left. It was an offer I couldn't (and didn't!) refuse. I was also offered an open-ended invitation to stay with one of the people who gave me a ride in Toulouse. Despite the awful weather, I was able to narrowly miss each rainstorm by getting lucky rides. Historical note: This was the day that Europe began flooding due to excessive rains.
7-18 Fri. By luck, I had made amazing time and was a day ahead of schedule. I decided to meet my friend in Malcesine Italy, a beautiful tourist town on the massive lake north of Verona, where he had mentioned he would be. I had his phone number, but wasn't able to contact him. Upon my arrival, Michele couldn't believe I had arrived at all, and certainly not in two days... Also, on this ride I was offered an open ended invitation to stay in Venice with the family of one of the truck drivers who took me through Italy. The French and Italians are very remarkable, friendly, and trusting people. I feel bad that most Americans are not like this.
7-19 Sat. After some swimming and touring, Michele and his girlfriend Mira
and I drove to Dobiacco, a small town in the mountains of Italy where Michele's
father owned a restaurant. Pictured was the view form our window. We rented a
pedal boat and enjoyed authentic home cooked Italian food as well as an
authentic home cooked Pakistani meal prepared by one of their friends. In addition, we
got to test drive Michele's father's very fast sports car! I also sampled all
sorts of alcoholic beverages ranging from ?Crape? to Buurenwein, the former
being like Cognac, and the latter being like a sweet red wine. Buurenwein was
pretty good.
7-21 Mon. I began my hitch back to Vevey, Switzerland. I started very early in the morning, so I was in no hurry. I found that in Italy, Austria and Germany, I was picked up almost immediately, but not always by people who were going very far, or very quickly. For part of the journey, I was riding in a truck going about 10 Km/hr up the mountain passes. The conversation was good, and I confirmed that my German is usable once I get warmed up. The truck driver actually stopped for a surgical dentist appointment, and then couldn't talk after that because his mouth was completely numb. This seemed to bother him quite a bit since he enjoyed explaining all the details of each place we passed..
Once I got into Switzerland, everything went astray. First I was brought to places we had agreed I didn't want to go such as the center of Zurich: “We decided to take you to the train station...” and second, nobody would pick me up. I finally found a kind French tourist who let me accompany her to Vevey. I didn't find the Swiss to be extremely kind to strangers who don’t use their public transportation system. In fact, I think there was quite a bit of resentment by some, similar to the resentment that some feel for beggars on street corners.
7-25 Fri. We sent Tom's son off to the US to visit my father for two weeks. I
was also able to talk with my father for about 35 minutes using Internet Phone,
a cheap method of high-tech communication. Now I’m about to head back into
central Switzerland, but this time with Tom and family by car to visit several
Swiss Cities, Tom's parents, and do a little hiking. We also found the opportunity
to hike the truly magnificent Swiss Alps.
While talking with Anne Vrachliotis, one of Tom's friends that I had met on a previous visit to Switzerland, we came up with the idea that I could travel to Corfu island on my way to Thessalonica, Greece, and visit with Anne's husband Marcel, whom I had also met the last time I was in Vevey. This seemed like a great idea, so Anne started making calls and I started packing.